That's a whole lot of great tips! I would expect to only get a chance to retry the weekend but this makes my hands itch to go upstairs again... Interesting how colour paper is so much more sensitive than B&W, I will take notice of this...

That's a whole lot of great tips! I would expect to only get a chance to retry the weekend but this makes my hands itch to go upstairs again... Interesting how colour paper is so much more sensitive than B&W, I will take notice of this...

Success! I made a slightly over 1 sec exposure with f/16 (which is the smallest aperture on my lens), and other than it being on the red side it looks quite alright to me! I did a test exposure 1 sec vs 3 and even three was getting incredibly dark, so I now understand how very fast this paper is...

Here's the photo. I'll need to investigate whether the streaks on the left hand side are on the negs or not and when giving it another try I'll make sure to tone that down (bear in mind the film is heavily expired, so some reds were to be expected, that's what I got when I had them professionally developed as well).

Well at 1 sec and f16 it explains why your long exposures at f5.6 were many times too much. If the right exposure is about 1 sec at f16, I'd consider using a lower wattage bulb or dialling in C as a form of neutral density to increase exposure to somewhere between 4 and 10 secs. So if 50M and 50Y is correct and the exposure is still very short then consider an addition of 10-20C and then balance by increasing the Y and M by the same amount. So if 10C is needed then you dial 60Y and 60M instead of 50Y and 50M.

To get the exposure times to around 10", which would be more normal, it would take the addition of about 60C, 60 M and 60 Y over and above his current or correct filter pack as he is more than 2 stops low. It would probably be better to add a .60 neutral density and keep his best filter pack.

Just another source of confusion, at school we have Omega enlargers I think, not sure the model. but they have a knob to engage the filter or disengage for focusing, three color knobs (c, m, y), the aperture on the lens, and then there's a fourth knob next to the three color filter knobs. I'm assuming this adds some sort of diffusion but it darkens the image on the baseboard significantly. It sounds like your problem lies in extreme overexposure at the enlarging stage and I know from experience (I'm new to color too) that there are about a million mistakes to make.

4th knob sounds like a ND knob which PE has advised should be used if it exists on the OP's enlarger. If so then great. The problem might be that the OP's enlarger doesn't have this or a drawer for filters. I don't know. Certainly my Durst M605 with its dichroic head doesn't. At the kind of increases in C fitration needed and if there is no drawer for ND filters then a lower wattage bulb may be the answer.